12.
The extended family.
For some time now I have been observing Tamil FB writers from different backgrounds. . A person with a rural or small town background usually goes on and on about the merits of his upbringing , the pleasures they are sure city dwellers miss. Mostly it is about living in an extended family. Well everyone cannot be country born. We too have a place in the scheme of things. I think unconsciously I am writing my story just to offset theirs.
However I am not a seasoned writer so I do tend to forget something essential.
Arakkonam Thatha is in the Railways( usually in Andhra ) our sittis are just about 4 and 6 years older than us. They do visit us off and on. The anchor for our lives is however our Trichy patti. Every year wearing narmadi saree she would be seen off at the Trichy junction . Here she would be met by my elder brother or Amma and we would have a rollicking time for the next couple of months.Every night we would wait for her to finish her palagaram so that we can fall on her. With 30+ grandchildren in her fold she would effortlessly manage to make us believe that we were the apples of her eye. Compelling story teller, we would listen with avid interest to her tales from the epics. One brother would be obsessed about Dhruva.Tirelessly she would repeat it everyday and then start the next episode. With cousins visiting we would have the mandatory thayir sadam and vatta kulambu sitting in a circle around her. I still repeat the prayers taught by her to ward off bad dreams .
One cousin studying is IIT Madras would visit us some times. As in all Indian homes we would be asked to emulate him and his sisters.
As Appa was the man who had done well in life , we would have a stream of cousins every year staying with us ,studies sponsored by him. They would usually study at Ramakrishna Mission School and be here to write their SSLC first or second attempt. They would be pampered by Amma. No house hold jobs for them.No one asked us to be more like them.
So on and off we would have more people in our lives . Other than an absentee parent we lacked for nothing.
The Chinese aggression has taken place and Appa for sometime now has been near the Indo Tibetan border. We write letters to him through a different APO. One inland cover is completely covered in writing , with contributions by all of us. He too writes to each one of us on one inland letter. Sometimes he tries to tell us something about his life there , the harsh Himalayan climate ,but it gets censored .
Work on our house is complete. Amma has been going to the site while work is in progress. Patti oversees the preparations for the Grihaprevesam . No fancy invitation cards. Letters are just written to relatives .
We await our father's homecoming.
Comments
Post a Comment